


Picture Perfect

by Hawkefeathers



Series: Picture Perfect [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blind Character, Blind!Soldier: 76, Brainwashing, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Mild Gore, Torture, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-14 22:42:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7193885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkefeathers/pseuds/Hawkefeathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reaper had been itching for the chance to kill Soldier: 76 ever since he discovered it was Jack Morrison behind the mask. Now he finally had him where he wanted him. So why was he hesitating? And why did Jack refuse to look at him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Picture Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me after wondering if Soldier: 76's visor could function similar to La Forge's VISOR in Star Trek: TNG. Just had to get this out here.
> 
> Dedicating this one to abakkus on tumblr!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been edited as of 6/29/16 to include the headcanon that Jack's face came out terribly damaged after the explosion. Cover art by [why-the-hell-did-i-make-this](http://why-the-hell-did-i-make-this.tumblr.com) on tumblr!

[](http://imgur.com/qNHuAPD)

He’d had time to consider what he would do to Morrison if he ever saw him again. Six years and change. Reyes hadn’t once considered his old friend to be dead. Cheating one’s own death tended to have that sort of effect on a person. There was also the lack of a corpse to bury, a little fact he’d gleaned on one of his many intel gathering missions for Talon. The emergence of Soldier: 76 had only proven his suspicions to be correct. 

And now here they were. Reaper towered over the soldier from where he lay slumped against the wall, Morrison’s fingers sticky with blood that stained his gloves a darker shade of red. The wraith had managed to flank him and get close enough to punch a hole through his gut with one of his shotguns. It was only by virtue of his enhancements and an extreme stroke of luck that it hadn’t killed him outright. 

Reaper’s laugh echoed through the dark warehouse, tinged with smoke and grating at the soldier’s ears. “Pathetic. Strike-Commander Morrison brought down by _one_ lousy shot. You’ve gone soft, old man.” The other man’s expression was hard to read behind his visor, but it wasn’t hard to see how he bristled at the insult. “Retirement not treating you so well?”

Jack snorted. “Retirement my ass. You know damn well how we ended up here. Now are you gonna shoot me or just stand there and gloat? I’ve got more important things to do.” 

“Oh, am I boring you? I guess you’d much rather go beat up some street thugs or steal more outdated junk.” Reyes crossed his arms, eyes narrowing behind his mask. He could hear from Jack’s labored breathing that it was getting difficult to breathe but he hadn’t made any efforts to remove the tactical mask to make it easier on himself. In fact, Reaper hadn’t once caught him without it. The visor itself was dim and cracked beyond repair and was no longer able to be of any use. If anything, it would make it harder to see, especially with the low light. 

For some reason Reyes couldn’t fathom the visor was starting to irritate him, so he crouched in front of the wounded soldier and hooked two of his fingers under the lower edges of the mask. One of Jack’s hands immediately came up to stop him but he forced it aside and yanked the mask free, tossing it aside carelessly. The face underneath was barely recognizable; the lower half of Jack's face seemed to be one big mass of scar tissue. A particularly deep scar was etched across his lips and Reyes could see teeth where the gap hadn't closed up all of the way. The skin over his cheeks and jaw was pink and shiny and reminiscent of melted wax. Part of his nose appeared to be missing. What little of his face was unmarred was weathered and worn, creases in his skin starting to show his age. “Damn, you really have gotten ugly. And _old_.”

Jack, for his part, seemed determined to stare forward, jaw clenched. “What, and you haven’t? I seem to remember you having more than a few years on me. Or is eternal youth another side effect of whatever shit you’ve got going on. You like one of those pretty-boy bloodsuckers now?” 

Reyes snarled. Jack didn’t know the agony he’d suffered when he’d been dragged back from death. Or the pain he constantly endured as his body broke down and repaired itself over and over again. Not a day went by that Gabriel didn’t look in the mirror and see the twisted image of what he had become against his will. And now Jack was going to sit here and _mock_ him for it?

“You think this is some _joke_? You cheat death like it's no big deal and think you can treat this like it’s _nothing_?” He shoved Morrison against the wall with one hand hard enough to make the other man gasp before reaching up and removing his own skull-like mask. “Look what you fucking did to me!” A cold, dead voice in the back of his mind whispered that it was as much his fault as Jack’s, that Jack had obviously suffered his own share for what had happened. But Reyes had always been good at passing the blame to others.

His anger only grew when Jack refused to look at him. Reyes found himself shaking the other man and getting right up in his face. “I said look at me! _Look at my face and tell me this is a joke!_ ”

“I can’t-"

“ _Don’t give me that bullshit, Morrison-_ "

“I said can't _see_ , you idiot!"

Reyes was ready to shake him again when it finally clicked. Something about Jack’s face had been bothering from the second he’d pulled the mask off, something other than the horrible scarring. The way Jack’s eyes stared past him. Now that he looked, really looked, he could see the faint milky quality to those pale blue eyes. He hadn’t been trying to ignore him. He _literally_ could not see him. 

Jack was blind.

“When the fuck did this happen?”

The soldier scoffed, a grim smile on his lips. “When do you think? You weren’t the only one that came out different that day, Reyes. Though I still think I got the better deal.”

There must have been something special about the visor then, because Reyes knew that there were moments that Jack had definitely been able to see him. But that didn’t matter now. “Fine. I can’t show you by sight then we’ll have to try something different.” Making quick work of the soldier’s gloves, he brought Jack’s hands up to his face. 

For a moment, neither of them moved. Reyes thought he was going to have to start dragging Jack’s hands across his face when he felt the first feather-light touches ghost across his skin. The soldier’s hands moved tentatively at first, almost as if he expected Reyes to bite him, but the touches became firmer when it became clear that there wasn’t going to be any protest. He started at Gabriel’s brow, tracing scars old and new and mapping out the wrinkles that hadn’t been there before. He then went lower, across firm cheekbones and a prominent nose, noting how some patches of skin felt rougher than others, dry and cold. _Like dead skin_. But it was a face he recognized. He knew every dip and curve, the rough edges and sharp corners. In another life he’d spent hours mapping out this very face in the dark when they were allowed a moment alone. Those few precious moments when they weren’t Reyes and Morrison but rather Gabe and Jack. Reyes was so distracted by the familiar feeling of fingers drifting over skin that he was startled to notice tears forming in Jack’s eyes. Still, he wasn't willing to break the silence first. 

“You goddamn asshole.” Jack’s voice was cracked and bitter. “You talk like you’re some kind of freak but I hardly see any difference.” He seemed to know that Reyes was going to make a comment about not being able to _see_ and cut him off. “Can it. You know what I meant. You think I don’t remember your face after all these years? I could paint it with my eyes closed, Gabe.”

 _Gabe_. Jack hadn’t called him that for a long time. Even before the disaster that had changed both of them. Reyes was disgusted to realized that his own eyes were growing damp as Jack’s thumb gently traced his lower lip. “You can’t paint worth shit and we both know it.”

“Gabe.”

“Yeah?”

“You talk too damn much.”

Whatever protest Reyes might have come up with faded as soon as their lips met, and he thought to himself that he could afford to shut up just this once.

  


**_And I could paint you picture perfect even if I were blinded / But you have to die for me to see how to live_** \- Escape the Fate, _Picture Perfect_


	2. Something ugly this way comes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yanking the visor from his face and struggling against a sudden wave of dizziness, he stared wide-eyed at the scientist. “What the hell was that?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to keep this going with more chapters. I have a few more planned after this, though suggestions are always welcome.
> 
> EDIT: This chapter has been edited as of 6/29/16 to include the headcanon that Jack's face was disfigured in the explosion.

Jack turned the red visor back and forth in his hands, studying the design as Winston looked at him expectantly. “So this is for…what exactly?”

The gorilla huffed in exasperation. “I know you’re busy, Jack, but the report has been sitting on your desk for two weeks now. You could have at least skimmed through it.” Busy was probably an understatement. He could see the dark circles under the man’s eyes, offsetting the wrinkles and creases that had set in over the years. The hint of grey hidden in the blond of his hair was a further testament to the fact that Jack wasn’t a young man anymore.

The commander sighed, running his thumb over the cool glass of the visor. “I know. There’s just been so much going on. Talon has been very active lately, and I’ve been running all over the damn place trying to keep Blackwatch out of the press.” There was a bitter emphasis on the name of the covert-ops unit. Overwatch had already been on tenuous ground in recent years as people started to doubt their usefulness and then Blackwatch had been exposed. Jack was forced to parade around in front of a UN committee on a near constant basis, all the while wondering what the fuck Reyes was thinking. So it wasn’t that hard to see why a report on a new piece of tech would slip his mind. “Just tell me what it does.”

He missed the sympathetic expression on Winston’s face, but jumped slightly when one large finger tapped against his temple. “Put it on and see for yourself. I have to warn you, it might be a bit disorienting at first but I think you’ll find it to be an improvement over your current eyepiece.”

Jack looked skeptical but did as he was told. As he slid it into place he noticed an odd sensation where the visor pressed against his temples. It was like a faint buzzing under his skin, not enough to be unpleasant but definitely strange. When he opened his eyes he wasn't surprised to see the world tinted red-orange through the glass of the visor. “Alright, I don’t see what’s so-“

He cut off with a jerk as the buzzing sensation intensified and streams of information suddenly sprang into his vision, the red fading as everything came sharply into focus. The exact temperature and humidity of the room, distance to escape routes, a count of the rounds in the clip of his sidearm. As he turned to stare at Winston, he was assaulted by information regarding the integrity of the gorilla’s armor, possible weaknesses, countermeasures, and all sorts of data regarding the upper strength limits of a regular gorilla versus known data on Winston himself. As each item came and went he noticed how, no matter where his eyes focused, the info readout was always dead center to his vision. And there was a strange sense of double-vision, like his brain was registering everything twice. At the tail end of this revelation was a building sensation of pain centered behind his eyes like he’d strained them from sitting in front of a computer screen all day. He closed his eyes to try to combat the overload of sensations and realized a moment later that _he could still see everything_.

Yanking the visor from his face and struggling against a sudden wave of dizziness, he stared wide-eyed at the scientist. “What the hell was that?!” It took everything he had not to throw the visor across the room. Closing his eyes had given the images an oddly flat quality that was disturbingly surreal. Objects had appeared as outlines, first and foremost, with minimal details. They had had an almost dreamlike quality to them. 

Winston’s toothy grin would have been unsettling to those that didn’t know him. “Amazing, isn’t it? The mask has a built in neural interface that projects the images directly into the visual cortex of the brain. It can even pick up the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums! Think of the applications, Jack!”

Jack was about to open his mouth to reply that he was a bit too _nauseous_ for that when Athena’s cool voice cut him off. “Commander Morrison, you wished to be informed when Captain Reyes returned.” His expression immediately hardened.

“Excuse me, Winston. I need to have a little _talk_ with Reyes.”

Jack didn’t realize that he was still carrying the visor until he was halfway down the hall.

\-------------------

There was yelling. And then they were fighting.

The man that once whispered endearments to him in the dead of night was now spouting threats and curses and accusing him of stealing his glory. Never mind that Jack had never wanted this position or the responsibility that came with it. He suddenly understood why Gabe had become so cold, but it was far too late. 

Then everything went up in flames.

\-------------------

His face was on _fire_. That was his first thought as awareness slowly came back to him. He wasn’t sure if his face was burning literally or if it was one big mass of pain. Jack struggled to drag his hand across the floor, grunting with the effort. It took several tries to pull his glove off with his teeth and he nearly passed out again when opening his mouth sent a bolt of agony across his face. 

His fingers were clumsy as he prodded at his flesh. He noticed that his skin wasn’t actually burning, but it was little relief when nearly every bit of skin he touched was wet with what he assumed to be blood. In many places the skin seemed to be missing entirely and he was left with the nauseating sensation of prodding muscle and torn flesh. There was a jagged wound that split his upper and lower lip wide open and another that nearly bisected his face. He nearly blacked out again when he realized that part of his nose was just _gone_. His face was completely destroyed, but he would survive. He had to. It wasn’t until he tried tracing the distance from the wound on his brow to his eye that he realized his eyes were open. Wide open, and yet he saw nothing.

Jack started blinking furiously in an attempt to clear his vision and howled in agony as white-hot pain lanced across his eyes. He remembered a blinding flash and terrible heat from the blast and realized through the haze of pain that the explosion had blinded him. The last thing he could recall seeing clearly was Gabriel’s face twisted in rage. 

_Gabe!_

Jack forced himself to his knees, disturbed at the sound of his own blood splattering onto the floor. He was immediately aware of other injuries caused by the blast but he had no way of telling how severe they were. But he couldn’t worry about that now. Reyes had been closer to the source of the blast. If Jack was hurt this badly, what had happened to him? 

He had to know.

Crawling forward carefully, he stopped when his fingers brushed against smooth glass. Curious despite the situation, he ran his fingers over it and realized that it felt familiar. It was the visor that Winston had been showing him before everything went sideways. Would the thing even work with his eyes so badly damaged? He struggled to recall how it worked; something about projecting images directly onto the brain. He wouldn’t need eyes for that, right? There was really only one way to find out. 

Gritting his teeth, he pressed the visor to his face and felt that same buzzing sensation he’d felt before. The jolt as it kicked in nearly had him clawing the mask from his face as it added to the considerable amount of pain he was already in, but he managed to keep himself in check as the world came into focus. It was difficult to make sense of things at first. The fire and smoke must have been playing hell with the visor’s sensors and everything had a blurry quality to it that was like looking at things underwater. But it was better than the blackness he’d been trapped in before.

And it allowed him to see the prone form of Gabriel Reyes trapped under the remains of what had once been the roof of the Swiss headquarters.

The cold sense of dread that trickled down his spine pushed him to stand and hobble the dozen or so steps it took to reach him. He landed heavily on his knees next to him, hesitating to touch him as he looked him over. There was blood, but it was hard to tell how much against the black that the man wore from head to toe. Suddenly he was assaulted with a flood of information cataloguing a number of wounds on the parts of Gabriel that weren’t buried. Which bones were likely broken, which organs likely ruptured. The most disturbing of all was a single line straying off to the right tracking Gabriel’s slowing heartbeat.

“No, God damn it! You do not get to die on me! _Not after everything you’ve put me through!_ ” His voice cracked and stung from the smoke and was horribly garbled due to the mess that his face had become. He no longer cared about the pain in his face or the fire raging around them. He was going to get Reyes out of here and tear that asshole a new one once he was sure he wasn’t going to die. 

Hours later he was left with the corpse of the man he’d once loved, wondering how it had all come to this.


	3. 'Cause the love that you lost wasn't worth what it cost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How many times had Jack huddled alone in small dark rooms in abandoned houses, blindly trying to keep himself from falling apart?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to dedicate this chapter to jara257 on tumblr. Inspiration for some of this chapter comes from [this post](http://jara257.tumblr.com/post/146009857459), and boy does it hurt so good.

Gabriel studied Jack carefully in the dim light. The soldier was currently standing over a dingy sink and carefully pulling a needle through his skin as he stitched up the wound in his side. He’d grudgingly given up the location of his closest safe house when Gabe had pushed him on it, and it took no time at all for them to get there when the Reaper used his shadow abilities. He’d felt a smug sense of satisfaction when the trip had nearly caused Jack to gag, but it was tempered by what he’d recently learned.

Jack was blind. Had been since the explosion at the Swiss base. He’d somehow dragged himself out of there and managed to hide the fact that he’d survived from the rest of the world. Gabriel had been to the grave site and the memorial they’d erected for him. He’d sneered in disgust but felt oddly empty. He’d grown to hate the man and should have been happy to learn that he was dead, but part of him had refused to accept it. Then a few months ago he learns that Jack is still very much alive and still very capable of being a pain in his ass. But he is obviously not the same as he was before.

Neither of them spoke about the kiss.

It was strange to watch him tending to his wounds like this. Jack had to rely on touch to guide his fingers while he closed the wound and his dull eyes stared blankly ahead at the cracked mirror. Gabriel had a full view of his back, covered in scars old and new. A few he remembered from back in their glory days. The one he remembered the clearest was just to the right of Jack’s spine low on his back. An omnic had nearly crippled him at the height of the crisis and if it hadn’t been for Angela’s intervention Jack would have been permanently out of the fight. She hadn’t perfected her Caduceus staff yet so the wound had left a nasty scar. But it was a reminder that it could have been much worse.

There were newer scars too. There was one just under his left shoulder blade. It was the width of a quarter and looked like something had punched through. There was another along his side that had left a permanent trench under his ribs like he’d nearly been cut in half. These and many of the newer scars looked as if they had healed with only the most basic of care. Then there were the scars that must have come from the explosion itself. Great swathes of skin on Jack's arms and torso had the same burnt and melted look as his face. They were ugly things, further marring Jack’s past Golden Boy image. How many times had Jack huddled alone in small dark rooms in abandoned houses, blindly trying to keep himself from falling apart?

“Do you want something or are you just going to keep staring?” Jack’s gravelly voice pulled him from his thoughts. Gabe narrowed his eyes, wondering if Morrison had been exaggerating his impairment, but Jack’s own cloudy eyes were still fixed dully ahead. Then again, he’d always had a knack for knowing when people were watching him.

“ _Mierda_ , Morrison. You sound like you’ve been gargling rocks. What’s the matter, not talk much lately with your little Lone Wolf routine?”

Jack turned his head in what appeared to be an aborted attempt to look at him. “Funny how taking a blast to the face will fuck up your vocal cords, huh? What’s your excuse? They not keep lozenges on hand back at Talon? Try some tea with honey, I hear it works wonders.”

“At least I’m not some decrepit old man still trying to play action hero. Should I fetch you a cane and some sunglasses? I’m sure there’s a few boy scouts around here that are just _dying_ for the chance to earn their merit badges.” It was a low blow and Gabriel knew it. But he was long past the point of caring. Still, he probably deserved what Jack said next.

“Better than a corpse that doesn’t have the good sense to realize it’s dead.”

Gabriel snarled and was instantly across the room in a trail of smoke and pinning Jack to the wall by his throat. The soldier’s eyes widened in surprise and unadulterated fear at being caught so off guard and the expression only caused the Reaper to squeeze tighter. “And whose fault is that, huh? Who pushed me to that? You stole _everything_ from me! My position, my glory, _my life!_ You said we were in it together and then _you stole it all out from under me!_ ”

_**Hands bound. Trapped in a small room with a screen taking up half of the wall. “You must know that I’d never turn on Jack.”** _

_**“You’re loyal to him. Good.”** _

Jack was wheezing loudly as he fought to pry Gabe’s hand from his throat, but the strength that would have hurt a normal person barely made the Reaper’s hand twitch. The dog tags on the chain around Jack’s throat clinked and rattled against the metal plates of his gauntlet. Something about them clawed at Gabriel’s nerves. _Four of them. Why are there four tags when he should only have two?_

The needle Jack had been using to stitch his wound dangled from his skin, the wound itself only half closed. The sensation of the thread tugging at his skin sent small tremors along Jack’s flank. “You keep… saying that. But... you aren’t making any goddamn sense.” Jack’s breathing was painful to listen to, but Gabriel was finding it hard to care at the moment. “All of those things you did with Blackwatch… and then the base in Switzerland. How was any of that on me?!”

_**“He took everything from me!”** _

Reaper drew close enough that Jack could feel the acrid black smoke burning his nostrils. He could feel Gabriel’s icy breath against his skin and he realized that Gabe had never put his own skull mask back on. “I was meant to lead Overwatch and you knew it. So you went behind my back and weaseled your way in to take it from me! You were just in it for yourself. You didn’t care who got hurt!”

Jack’s struggles grew weaker as confusion took hold. “What the hell are you talking about? I told you from the beginning that I didn’t want that job. They practically shoved it down my throat! You were there! For fuck’s sake, I tried to get them to give it to you!” 

Gabriel growled and tightened his hold, feeling his claws break skin as he shook Jack like a rag doll. “You put on a good show, I’ll give you that. But in the end you still took it. Meanwhile I got foisted off to do your dirty work while you got all the credit for a job well done. You had no idea what we were up to, did you _Sunshine?_ Too busy being Overwatch’s poster boy to notice when one of your own went missing.”

He felt Jack flinch as much as he saw it. The soldier’s eyes might be dull and useless but they were still as expressive as they were all those years ago. And right now they were filled with guilt. “We did everything we could to get to Amelie and you know it-”

“ _I wasn’t talking about her!_ ”

“What...what are you talking about?”

“You ignorant _prick!_ ” Reyes shoved Jack against the wall one last time before finally letting him go. The soldier slid down slowly until he was sitting on the floor, one hand immediately going to staunch the fresh flow of blood from his side. A small, shriveled part of Gabe wanted badly to help him, but he’d stopped listening to that part a long time ago. “Talon had me for three weeks. Three _fucking _weeks, and not once did you try to send anyone in after me. I had to save my own fucking ass because someone couldn’t be bothered to know where his men were. I thought I meant something to you, Jack.” He was frustrated to find that his voice cracked on the last line.__

__Jack’s free hand smacked against the floor. “I didn’t know, goddamit! How was I supposed to? You kept everything so hush-hush down there that you wouldn’t even let your own men talk to me. Nobody told me jack shit about what you were doing!” He prodded at his temple with the heel of his hand, the familiar ache building to a crescendo from all of their yelling. He tasted blood on his upper lip and realized that his nose was bleeding._ _

__Gabriel rounded on him furiously, fingers itching for one of his guns. “Did it ever occur to you that I kept you out of Blackwatch business for your own fucking good? Couldn’t have _Pretty Boy_ Morrison associated with all of that dark and nasty shit going on down there. You could barely keep up as it was.” He hadn’t meant to admit that, but it was out there now. Even after tension over Jack’s promotion and the issues surrounding Blackwatch had driven them apart, Gabe hadn’t been able to keep himself from worrying about Jack. “Not that it fucking mattered.”_ _

__“Gabe... What the hell did they do to you?”_ _


	4. If this is love, baby I want out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As he eased himself into the worn leather chair in front of the largest monitor he felt the first tendrils of trepidation creeping up his spine. If he found what Gabe wanted him to see it was going to change things. It could be a step towards patching up the mess their lives had become.
> 
> Or it could bring it all crashing down around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we start to see signs of an actual Plot.
> 
> Once again this was inspired by jara257's [comic](http://officialpharma.co.vu/post/146021886684/youre-ready-pt-2-of-this-continuedmore-it).
> 
> You can also thank penteom for giving me some ideas.

Gabe didn’t tell him. 

In the silence that followed Jack was honestly worried that Gabe was going to hit him. Or worse. What he didn’t expect was the sound of a shaky breath followed by a low growl. “I assume you came here to look into the old Talon base in the area, right?”

The non sequitur caught Jack off guard. “Yeah. But what the hell does that have to do with-”

“If you want to know, that’s where you’ll find out. I’m giving you three days before I reduce the place to ash.” 

\----------------------------------------------------------

Two days later found him at the site of the base in question. He would have made it sooner, but he’d honestly needed to give himself a day to patch himself up and rest. And he’d needed to raid his cache for a replacement for his visor. He was now down to two: the model he was currently wearing and a spare. He was going to have to do something about that sooner rather than later, but it was a worry for another day.

Whatever it was that had happened to Gabriel was far more important.

He’d been kicking himself ever since Gabe had told him about being captive for three weeks. Even with all of the secrecy within Blackwatch, he should have known _something_. Jesse used to tell him through vague statements and implications, but the gunslinger had become disillusioned with Blackwatch’s operations as time went on and had left. Jack regretted not pushing him for more information.

The base itself wasn’t all that difficult to get into. Abandoned as it was, it looked like Talon had seen fit to only leave minimal security behind. Getting inside had been child’s play. The thick layer of dust covering everything was a sign that nobody had been around for years, but he still kept his guard up. It wouldn’t do to get cocky and get himself shot again. Or worse.

Gabe hadn’t really given him anything to go on so he was at a bit of a loss on where to start. He supposed the long bank of computer consoles was as good a place as any. He was mildly surprised that the building still had power but figured that there must be a generator somewhere nearby. It didn’t matter. Once he had what he wanted, and Gabe torched the place, there would be nothing left here. As he eased himself into the worn leather chair in front of the largest monitor he felt the first tendrils of trepidation creeping up his spine. If he found what Gabe wanted him to see it was going to change things. It could be a step towards patching up the mess their lives had become.

Or it could bring it all crashing down around them. 

Well, there was no sense putting it off now. One way or the other he had to see this through. The computer was slow to boot after having gone unused for so long and he had to rely on a liberated piece of Overwatch tech to get into the system. Starting with the access logs, he was surprised to see that the last time the console had been accessed was nearly five years before the destruction of the Swiss base. If he recalled correctly, that was around the time that Jesse had resigned from Blackwatch. And when Gabe had gone from cold to downright hostile. Whatever he was supposed to see must have lead directly to that. He dug around a bit more until he found a collection of video files. The dates covered a range of three weeks and there were _seven hundred and eighty-five of them_. Feeling oddly helpless, he selected the first one.

_**“You must know that I’d never turn on Jack.”** _

\----------------------------------------------------------

Seven hundred and eighty-five. That was the magic number. That was how many times Talon had used his own face and voice to turn Gabriel’s resentment into hate. 

_**“He took everything from me!”** _

He didn’t know when the tears had started. He could feel them under the visor, making his skin stick to the hard material. With a disgusted yell he pried the mask from his face, barely restraining himself from throwing it across the room. For once the darkness was a relief as he no longer had to look at the monitor and the signs of his greatest failure. He buried his face in his hands as he recalled some of the awful things his doppelganger had spouted. Christ, no wonder Gabe hated him. 

_**“You were a good lay, I’ll give you that. But you have to know that I only did it to get ahead. You made me your Second during the Crisis, didn’t you?”** _

_**“Of course I wanted the position. I would have been stupid not to. But we couldn’t have your feelings getting hurt could we?”** _

_**“You breaking up with me was a godsend. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself.”** _

_**“You getting assigned to Blackwatch was the best thing that ever happened to me. It got you off my back and I didn’t have to look at you anymore.”** _

_**“You really didn’t think we’d get married when it was all over, did you?”** _

He fished the old chain out from under his shirt, gripping the dog tags tight enough that they would have cut into his flesh if not for his gloves. Two of the tags were his, and the other two were pulled from Gabe’s corpse at the Swiss HQ. Next to the tags were a pair of simple bands. The gold had been given to him during one of the greatest moments of his life. The silver had been thrown back in his face in one of the worst. 

_**“It’s over, Morrison. This just isn’t working anymore. You can see that, can’t you? What’s the point?”** _

And that was before Gabe had been forced to sit through all of this. Forced to spend hours watching video after video of the man he once loved telling him such horrible things. They had kept him awake, never letting him catch more than an hour of sleep at a time. Gabe had known it was fake at the beginning. Had fought back, taunted his captors, pointed out all of the things they’d gotten wrong about Jack’s appearance or inflection. But the fight in his eyes had slowly died and he’d eventually been worn down by the forced feed of information. Jack couldn’t blame him for the hate practically pouring off of him at the end. It was a miracle that he’d lasted as long as he had. How the hell would he ever fix this? _Could_ he fix this? 

“Seven hundred and eighty-five goddamn times.”

He never should have let his guard down. He registered the soft tap of footsteps far too late. There was a crack of gunfire and sickening jolt as his shoulder practically _exploded_ with pain. He couldn’t help the pained shout that escaped, immediately clutching at his shoulder as blood poured from the wound. Stupid. So stupid! He never should have taken off the visor! Not here!

He reached blindly for the visor and was relieved when his fingers closed around it, but it wasn’t to be. The butt of a gun came down hard on the back of his hand, causing his fingers to spasm loose and the visor itself to skitter out of his reach. The next blow was to his unguarded face, knocking him to the floor and making him gasp in pain as he landed on his wounded shoulder. He could feel himself slipping as laughter like crushed velvet echoed in his ears.

_“Sept cent quatre-vingt-six.”_

\----------------------------------------------------------

Jack wasn’t here. 

Reaper could see the signs that he had been. Dust was disturbed in many places and there were thick boot-prints in the dirt on the floor. But there was no sign of the man himself. Gabe moved slowly through the old base, half-expecting to come upon Jack around every corner. But the place was empty. Did Jack just up and leave after coming here? 

The sight of the computer monitor caused him to freeze. On it he could see an image of himself as he had been, face hard and eyes cold. It was a still frame in a video, the title bar reading “Subject: Reyes - Log 785”. The Gabriel on the screen was standing tall and tense, fueled by hate and pain. It was the day he’d made it out of here. The day he would start sowing dissent in the ranks of Blackwatch. 

He honestly didn’t remember a lot of what had happened here. He just knew that by the time he’d made it out he’d been consumed by the desire to destroy Jack Morrison utterly and entirely. He didn’t even realize he’d stepped forward until he felt the crunch of something under his boot. Looking down, he took him a moment to recognize the broken pieces of red glass for what they were. He stooped to pick the broken visor off of the floor and growled under his breath as he realized what it was. And what it likely meant. 

There was blood smeared across the glass. 

Approaching the monitor in earnest now, it was hard the miss the blood pooled across the console and the chair laying on it’s side on the floor. Jack’s rifle was under the desk like it had been kicked there and a quick examination revealed that the clip was full. Whatever had happened here, Jack hadn’t fired off a single round. Had someone managed to sneak up on him? _Where the hell was he?_

It took him longer than he’d like to admit to realize there was a second set of footprints on the floor. They were much smaller and more delicate. The footprints of someone who walked lightly. They lead to the console and away again. Following the footprints to the door alongside droplets of blood, the trail went cold just outside. Staked to the door with Jack’s old combat knife was something that drew his breath up short.

It was the set of dog tags he’d seen around Jack’s neck. _Two sets,_ he reminded himself. He snatched them up so quickly that he nearly broke the chain and choked when he saw what else was there. Rings. A pair of rings that he thought he’d never see again.

\----------------------------------------------------------

Gabriel eyed the silver band cautiously. “A ring, Jack? Seriously?”

Jack’s face was flushed red, a sight that was usually reserved for when Gabe whispered lewd comments into his ear. “It’s not like I’m asking you to _marry_ me or anything. If you don’t want it then don’t take it! I just thought...you know. It would be nice? Something to make it all feel a little more real.”

Gabe scoffed. “We don’t need rings for that, _cariño_.”

Jack crossed his arms and honest-to-God _pouted_ at him. “I know. I just wanted to give you something, alright? I won't make you take it.”

“Just give me the damn thing already.”

The gold band he gave Jack a month later had cost a ridiculous amount of money for something so simple. But the smile Jack gave him was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

\----------------------------------------------------------

It was like a punch to the gut. To see that Jack had held onto the rings for this long left him confused and reeling. This didn’t fit with what he’d come to believe about the man. You didn’t keep something like this if you’d never loved someone in the first place. Perhaps as a trophy, but then why would Jack wear them over his heart? He suddenly remembered the pained expression Jack had worn when he’d all but thrown the ring back at him. It was like Jack’s whole world was crashing down. But Gabe couldn’t stand for things to continue as they had been. It was killing both of them. 

And then Talon had gotten to him and he’d forgotten why he cared. 

He didn’t realize his hands were shaking until the sound of the tags rattling against his gauntlets caught his attention. He was going to slip them into his pocket and tear the place apart when a hint of red caught his eye. Lifting the tag with Jack’s name stamped into it, he saw that something had been carefully painted on it in blood.

It was a spider.


	5. I’ve lost all sense of my reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breath stuttered back into Jack’s lungs as the shocks died down. Even after the current was cut off, his muscles continued to scream at him as they convulsed and spasmed. The wounds on his shoulder and gut throbbed in time with his frantically beating heart and he had the sick thought that, had he not received the enhancements he had in his youth, he would be dead by now. That his captor seemed to know this wasn’t a comforting thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a long pause (considering how fast the fic has been coming out), Chapter 5 is finally here! I've recently decided to include the headcanon that Jack's face was disfigured in the explosion at Swiss HQ. As such, I've gone back and tweaked past chapters to make reference to this. It's not necessary to reread, but you may want to just in case.

Awareness came back to him in a rush of pain.

A ragged gasp worked it’s way free from Jack’s lungs as he tried instinctively to curl around his shoulder, the source of the worst of it. It took him a few seconds to realize that he couldn’t move because he was pinned to a hard surface by thick metal bands around his wrists and ankles. He was laid out flat, arms stretched to either side and feet pressed tightly together. He was also stripped bare from the waist up, his skin prickling uncomfortably in the cool air. He wasn’t sure what had woken him until he once again felt fingers against the bullet hole in his shoulder.

“Ah, nice of you to join us Mr. Morrison. Or do you prefer your new moniker now? What was it...Soldier: 76?” The voice was clinical, masculine. Accented but soft enough that it was difficult to pinpoint at first. German, maybe. Or Swiss. He wasn’t sure. And vaguely familiar. 

Then it hit him. This man knew who he was. Or, who he had been.

Jack clenched his jaw and kept his dead gaze directed towards the ceiling. He wasn’t going to humor this man with a response. Trying to deny it wouldn’t do him any good. If this man somehow knew him well enough to know him by sight even with his face looking the way it was then it would be pointless. And surely the dogtags would give him away.

He tensed suddenly when he realized he could no longer feel the familiar weight of the tags against his sternum or the pull of the chain around his throat. Had he lost them in the struggle? Did they take them from him? _What about the rings?_

The sudden, deep sense of _loss_ that washed over him was interrupted by the sharp prick of a needle entering skin. The uncomfortable sensation of thread being pulled through flesh followed and he realized the stranger was tending to his wounds. It didn’t bode well; someone didn’t go through the effort of patching you up if they didn't plan to keep you for a while.

“Now, Mr. 76, let us talk about Gabriel Reyes.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------

It took conscious effort not to burn the Talon facility to the ground then and there. 

Amelie. Of course they’d sent Amelie. There was no doubt in Gabriel’s mind that she was there to spy on him, as she rarely wandered far from her Talon handlers without specific orders. They had already been cross with him when he’d refused to be their lap-dog. He'd caustically reminded them that he was a mercenary and only worked for them as long as the pay was good and it suited his whims. He wasn’t about to commit himself to taking someone’s orders, not after everything that happened with Overwatch. As a merc he could cut and run when he damn well pleased. Not that anyone could stop him with his current abilities. 

And all of that was before he’d managed to dig up information on this little outpost. Agreeing to be on their payroll for a while had allowed him the chance to get into their systems and do some research to further his own ends. And it had lead him here. Sure, finding and killing former Overwatch agents had made for great sport at first, but this was the real prize. Before, it had been about finding those that had planted the explosives and leveled the Swiss HQ; Overwatch turncoats and Talon plants that had been preparing for the disaster long before Gabriel himself had kicked the hornet's’ nest. They were the ones that brought it all down in fire and steel and had lead to his death. To the thing he was now.

Oh, he’d meant to take down Jack Morrison, wrest control of Overwatch from his cold dead hands. But he’d intended to lead in Jack’s place. Make the world see that Overwatch was needed, that they’d be helpless without them.

His own death had never been part of the plan.

So he’d set out to kill those responsible. And to find the Talon base that had started this descent into hell. He hadn’t expected to find _Jack Fucking Morrison_ along the way, or have his beliefs about everything that had happened thrown into question. If Jack had really cared all this time, what else could he be wrong about? 

His anger and hate had lead him here, and he had unknowingly lead Jack into a trap. 

His musings were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Melting into the shadows, Gabe followed the faint noise to what appeared to have been a cargo bay. He drifted up to the exposed rafters to wait, intent on surprising his unwelcome guest and dragging any information out of them that he could. What he wasn’t expecting was the familiar drawl that echoed throughout the large space.

“Well now, what have we here?”

\--------------------------------------------------------------

Breath stuttered back into Jack’s lungs as the shocks died down. Even after the current was cut off, his muscles continued to scream at him as they convulsed and spasmed. The wounds on his shoulder and gut throbbed in time with his frantically beating heart and he had the sick thought that, had he not received the enhancements he had in his youth, he would be dead by now. That his captor seemed to know this wasn’t a comforting thought.

“I understand that this is all rather unpleasant, Mr. Morrison. If you would just cooperate with me I would not have to go this far. Just tell me what our dear Mr. Reyes is planning, hmm? What has he been skimming from our files?”

Jack remained silent, more out of spite at this point than out of any desire to withhold information. Besides, he didn’t have any information to give. That Gabe was working _against_ Talon in some way was news to him. He knew that Reaper was technically a mercenary that didn’t particularly owe his allegiance to anyone, but Talon had been his employer of choice for a while now. If anything, he found himself curious as well. 

His captor clucked his tongue, taking the hint that he wasn’t going to talk. “It seems that this is getting us nowhere. Let us switch to other methods.” There was a faint buzz of static that reminded Jack of a television or computer monitor being powered up. “It took us three weeks to break Mr. Reyes. How long will you last, I wonder?”

A familiar voice sprang forth from speakers somewhere above Jack’s head at an earsplitting volume.

**_“He took everything from me! Jack Morrison is a dead man!”_ **

\--------------------------------------------------------------

McCree blew out a thick cloud of smoke as he took a good look around the old cargo bay. It looked like the place had been shut down rather quickly, with tarp-covered crates still lined up against the walls in sparse groups. Nobody had seen fit to come back for them, apparently. Which fit with the reason they were here. He turned to his companion who was watching the rafters as if expecting a trap to spring at any moment. “You sure this is the right place? Don’t look like anyone’s been here in a long time.”

“According to the coordinates Winston gave us, this is the correct location. The presence of the Soldier in this area and the location of this base cannot be mere coincidence. He is here.” Hanzo’s dark eyes searched out the dark corners of the room, assessing possible escape routes or signs of an impending ambush. He had an arrow nocked and had been ready to fire from the moment they passed through the door. He didn’t drop his guard even after his search revealed nothing. He felt a small spark of irritation that Jesse didn’t even have his hand on his weapon, but he’d seen how fast he could draw his Peacekeeper so he let it be. 

McCree sighed as he tapped the ashes from the end of his cigarillo. “You think we beat him to it? Doesn’t look like anything’s been disturbed out here. Then again, the really good stuff is prolly further inside.” From what little they knew about Soldier: 76, he had a habit of hitting old Overwatch locations and stealing weapons and tech. There was also the matter of leaving a path of destruction and injured security personnel if he got caught in the act. But it didn’t look like there were any personnel here to spook. “Helluva job Winston gave us. Recruit or capture. Sounds familiar.”

Reaper listened to the exchange with eyes narrowed behind his mask. McCree he knew, the man looking more ragged than he had back when they’d worked together but the voice and that hat were unmistakable. The man next to him was unfamiliar. Short but well built, cybernetic legs gleaming dully in the sparse light. As he watched, the man fired his bow, seemingly picking his target at random. Gabriel briefly registered a tingle of something radiating from where the arrow had landed before he found himself dodging a second one, this time aimed directly at his face. When he spun around to look at the stranger once more he saw that the man was staring directly at him and already drawing back for a third shot. He didn’t give him a chance to fire, melting into smoke and rushing down towards them. As Gabe materialized in front of the pair he had a shotgun in each hand and began firing as soon as he was solid enough to pull the trigger.

Both men ducked to roll out of his way. The next arrow that came flying hit the ground at his feet, the tip splintering into several smaller points and ricocheting around him. He grunted as several pierced through him but he didn’t slow down; the wounds would be gone in a matter of seconds. The loud report of McCree’s Peacekeeper and the heavy slugs that pierced his back and shoulder were more bothersome and he found himself aggravated at the thought of his former protege turning his weapon against him, even if Jesse didn’t know that it was Reyes under the mask. 

Smoke billowed from the folds of Reaper’s coat as he started to dissolve, preparing to swing around behind McCree and catch him off guard. He saw the gunslinger grab something from his belt and throw it at him and suddenly there was a loud bang and a bright flash. His shotguns fell from nerveless fingers as he felt his muscles lock up, leaving him frozen and rigid as McCree casually sauntered up to him. The bastard looked smug.

“Not bad, eh? Winston decided to add a bit more wallop to these babies after that stunt you pulled back in Gibraltar. Now, you wanna tell me what the hell you’re doing here, Reyes? And does your _abuelita_ know that you’re running around dressed like a Halloween decoration? Figure she’d be mighty disappointed.” At Gabriel’s snarl, Jesse just laughed. Bastard. “The others might be fooled but I know it’s you under that getup. Never seen another sunovabitch crazy enough to dual-wield a pair of shotguns that big.”

Gabriel was prepared to lunge as control gradually returned to his limbs, but the sharp point of an arrow pressed to the back of his skull gave him pause. He could feel the faint buzz of electricity thrumming through the metal tip and while the shot wouldn’t kill him, the electric current would leave him struggling to regain solid form for hours. “Tell us what you are doing here. Surely you heard us conversing. Did you see the one known as Soldier: 76 as well?” The man’s voice was as sharp as the tip of his arrow, nothing like the cowboy still smirking at him. 

“You’re wasting your time,” Gabriel bit out. _And Jack's as well._ “He isn’t here.”

Jesse blew out another wisp of smoke. “Now see there’s a strange pattern forming here. We get word that he’s been sighted in this area, Winston tells us about this here Overwatch outpost, and now you’re here. Somethin’ don’t quite add up.”

Gabe wanted to laugh in Jesse’s face. Winston had sent them out here to recruit or capture Soldier: 76 without any idea that it was really Jack Morrison they were seeking. He was almost disappointed that he wasn’t going to get to see that fight but he had different plans. Plans that involved wiping this place off the map and pulling Jack out of whatever hellhole he’d been dragged off to. Maybe then he’d start to get some real answers. Answers about what Jack was playing at keeping his dogtags. About those fucking rings. 

His mind snagged on something that McCree said. “ _Overwatch_ outpost? I think Winston is starting to show his age. This is a Talon facility.”

Jesse cocked an eyebrow at him. “Bullshit. This place is Overwatch through-and-through. Well, technically it was _Blackwatch_ , but records don’t lie. It’s been on the Overwatch books for years.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------

Jack knew what they were trying to do. Knew they were trying to break him, wear him down like they’d done to Gabe all of those years ago. But there was something different here. The hate-filled words and whispers that continued to assault his ears were too clear. He’d spent too many years listening to that voice, had heard it go through an entire spectrum of emotions. He knew the cadence, the choice of words, the faint accent that would grow more pronounced as the voice became more passionate. There wasn’t any sign of the fractional pause or odd tone of manufactured words. 

He didn’t know how they’d managed to record them, but the words were Gabe’s. 

**_“I’m going to wring his neck. He got the promotion he wanted and look at what he’s doing with it. He’s driving Overwatch into the ground.”_ **

**_“Jack Morrison is a dead man. With him gone I’ll finally get what I fucking deserve.”_ **

**_“Everything is your fault! You did this! You ruined everything!”_ **

The last line was burned into his mind along with that final image of Gabriel’s screaming face. It was the last thing Gabriel said before the world came crashing down around them.


	6. So sacrifice yourself and let me have what’s left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much had been taken from him and now he finds that his desire to kill Jack wasn’t even his to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we start to get into some headcanons I have about how McCree left Blackwatch.

Gabriel found himself once again standing in front of that damn monitor. He would have put up more of a protest if he weren’t still reeling from the revelation that _this base had belonged to Overwatch the whole time._ Just how deep did Talon’s parasitic influence within Overwatch go? He’d accused Jack of not knowing where he was, but what if there had been someone on the inside purposely feeding him false information? What was it Jack had said? 

**_“Nobody told me jack shit about what you were doing!”_ **

Gabe had kept his men mostly silent out of spite, but something as important as missing men or missions gone fuck-up were always reported to Jack. Usually by Gabe himself, or McCree. But McCree had left and it was Gabe himself that was taken. He was startled to realize that he couldn’t think of a single other Blackwatch member that he’d trusted that closely back then. Had he really let his anger consume him that much?

“What the hell?”

McCree’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. The gunslinger was staring up at the monitor with his face pulled into a frown, teeth clamped around the end of his cigarillo. The image of Gabe from before was still there, shoulders held stiff and face burning with intense hatred. Reyes felt a strange sense of detachment when looking at his younger self. It was hard to reconcile that man with what he was now. 

McCree rewound the video a bit and then hit play. 

**_“Who are you?”_ **

**_“Gabriel Reyes.”_ **

**_“Who do you work for?”_ **

**_“Overwatch.”_ **

**_A picture of Jack Morrison appeared on the large screen taking up one of the walls of the room. “Who is this?”_ **

**_It was like a switch had been flipped. Gabriel’s face twisted in rage and he lashed out, smashing the monitor with a bare fist. “He took everything from me!”_ **

Jesse let out a low whistle that pierced the air. “ _Jesus Christ._ What the hell happened here? When was this?” His eyes honed in on Gabe, like he was trying to size him up through the mask. Reyes stubbornly refused to look in his direction. Honestly, he couldn’t really remember what happened here. He knew how long he’d been missing, knew that nobody had come to find him, and that he had left with the burning desire to destroy everything that Jack had worked so hard to build. He was about to respond with something sarcastic when the video cut out, the next video on the file list starting to play. The title bar read “Subject: Reyes - Log 786 [Status: Complete]”.

Instead of another video of Gabriel in the small room, there was a man that looked to be standing in the same room that they were now. Something tickled at the back of Gabe’s mind, some odd sense of familiarity. Apparently he wasn’t the only one. McCree was studying the man with an intensity he usually reserved for battle.

“Hey, I think I know that guy…” 

\--------------------------------------------------------

The man’s appearance was rather plain; short brown hair and pale blue eyes set in narrow features. He was dressed in a black coat with the Talon crest emblazoned on the shoulder. His build was slender, suited to a man of science rather that violence. But there was something in his eyes that was unsettling. 

“It is Day 24 and Project Reyes is a success. Through a combination of conditioning, drugs, and the Morrison AI we have managed to destroy his faith in Overwatch and, specifically, Strike-Commander Morrison himself. It is my belief that he will do his share to incite distrust among the ranks of Blackwatch and that, in time, he will do his part when our agents move to bring Overwatch down from within.” His voice was clear and crisp, the faint hint of a German accent underlying his words.

_“And what of Agent McCree? We were under the impression that you were unable to get close to Reyes with him present. Has the situation changed?”_

The man smiled, showing a hint of teeth. “Agent McCree is no longer a member of Blackwatch. I admit, he was an obstacle as long as he remained by Reyes’ side, which is why we arranged for him to have a little... _accident_ while on assignment. The preferred outcome was his death, but his resignation worked just as well for our plans. It allowed us to take Reyes and keep his disappearance from Morrison.”

_“And Morrison? Have you had any success with him?”_

“I have made some attempts. Primarily the administration of mild hallucinogens via supplements as well as low-frequency sonic emitters in his private quarters. Nothing that would be immediately noticeable, but over time may present itself similar to symptoms of extreme stress. It should leave him unbalanced enough to keep him unaware of our plans, and may even cause those most loyal to him to question if he is still fit for leadership.”

He chuckled softly. “And if it distracts him enough that he is killed on assignment? All the better.”  
\--------------------------------------------------------

The picture cut out suddenly as the screen shattered. Gabriel’s fist was embedded in the glass, thick tendrils of smoke twisting about like live snakes ready to strike. More smoke poured from his mouth and seeped out from under the mask. He saw nothing but red as his thoughts coiled and writhed around one another in his head; twisted, ugly things that gnawed away at him and crawled under his skin like insects. He didn’t even register that Hanzo had lowered his bow and the arrow was no longer pressed to his skull.

Talon had had their hooks in him this entire time. He’d known that something had changed after he’d gotten back to base, but he had no idea it was something like this. What he’d put down to his own anger and resentment had been the result of a much larger scheme. And he’d been just a pawn, a fool made to act on their whims and take the fall when it was all over. 

So much had been taken from him and now he finds that his desire to kill Jack wasn’t even his to begin with. 

“God damn _son of a bitch!_ ” Gabriel wasn’t the only one that was reeling. Jesse was still staring blankly at the broken monitor as he struggled to grasp what he’d just witnessed. He’d known that his final mission as part of Blackwatch had been crooked, he’d even screamed it in Gabe’s face as he’d been bleeding out from the mangled remains of his arm. But he’d had no idea that that fuck-up of a mission was all to get him out of the way so that those Talon bastards could get a clear shot at Gabe. And he’d just cut and run, angry as all hell that the people he’d come to work for were proving to be no better than the Deadlock gang that came before.

What if he’d stayed? 

Would they have been able to get to Reyes then? Would things have spiraled so spectacularly out of control to the point that HQ was left in ruins and Jack was dead? Hanzo must have seen something in his eyes because the man was suddenly at his side, a firm arm behind his back to steady him. Dark brown eyes watched him with thinly veiled concern but Jesse shook his head, mouthing ‘Later’. This was not the time or the place to talk about this. Especially with Gabriel’s form seeming to fade before their very eyes.

The scream that tore itself from Reaper’s throat would haunt McCree for the rest of his days. It was equal parts unbridled rage, despair, and pain. He couldn’t even begin to fathom what Reyes must be going through. To have your mind played with was a terrible thing, but to then kill the man you loved and destroy what you’d spent years trying to build? He could only imagine what that might do to a person.

And what the hell was with that guy in the video anyway? Jesse knew he’d seen him somewhere before. That unsettling smile, that same voice with those precise words. A sudden memory tickled at the back of his mind, that same voice telling him softly to relax and hold still while firm pressure was applied to the remains of his arm. He remembered now, the man was one of the doctors tasked with taking care of Blackwatch personnel. What was his name again? Something like-

“I’m going to kill them! _I’m going to rip every last Talon agent limb from limb!_ ”

Gabe’s voice cut off his train of thought like a knife through butter and left him floundering. “Now hold up there, Reyes-”

When Gabriel turned to face him it was the first time that Jesse was truly frightened by the Reaper persona he’d adopted. Smoke was billowing from under his coat and behind his mask, reminding McCree that whatever Gabe was, he wasn’t quite human anymore. His eyes burned like red-hot coals from the holes in the mask that were normally dark. McCree’s hand was on his revolver before he was consciously aware of it.

“Every second of my time you waste is another second that he’s in their hands! I’m leaving! _Just try and fucking stop me!_ ” 

McCree was confused. He hadn’t missed the signs of a struggle in the room when they’d entered. There was blood all over the console and a pulse rifle half under the desk. The design of the weapon implied that Soldier: 76 was the target here, and the lack of a corpse was a sign that this was an abduction and not straight-up murder. But he couldn’t figure out why _any_ of this meant anything to the infamous Reaper.

“Is this about that 76 fella? What makes him so important to you anyway?”

The growl directed at him from behind the mask didn’t sound like anything a human throat should make. “Are you seriously telling me that none of you idiots have figured out that the one breaking into old Overwatch bases is _Jack Fucking Morrison?!_ ”

“...well, shit. Lena owes me fifty bucks.”

\--------------------------------------------------------

Jack’s ears were ringing. The noise had finally been cut off, leaving him blessedly free of the pained and bitter words that were being used to taunt him. He wasn’t sure what they aimed to accomplish here. This wasn’t like what they did to Gabe; they’d inundated him with fabricated words and falsehoods meant to destroy his trust in Jack. What they were doing here seemed like it was meant to break his spirit. But to what end?

“It really is a shame to see you in such poor shape Mr. 76. With more time we might have been able to mold you into something quite fearsome. An attack dog of sorts. But all is not lost. Your knowledge of Overwatch and it’s so-called heroes will still be of use to us. And perhaps you can be used to bring Mr. Reyes to heel as well.” 

Jack jerked away as he felt fingers brush over his bare shoulder, twisting his scarred face into a snarl. He heard the man chuckle, as if he were witnessing the antics of a prized pet, and then he felt a needle being pressed into his skin. Fire radiated out from the site of the injection and he couldn’t stop the hoarse scream as the paint caught him off guard. Gabriel’s voice once again blared from the speakers overhead, drowning out his captor’s next words.

“And if I get to break the mighty Jack Morrison in the process? That is merely a bonus.”


	7. Save me 'cause I'm a danger to myself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That smirk was something McCree had seen time and time again, but it had an added flash of sharp teeth, “I want them to see my face and know who killed them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy. After a two week wait we finally have the next chapter! We're getting close to the end here now with only a few chapters left. 
> 
> Thanks again to ShrupInterrupts for being my beta this chapter!

Thankfully for Gabriel’s temper it didn’t take long to find the second Talon base. Although it galled him to admit he might need help, Gabe had grudgingly agreed to let McCree and his pet archer tag along. Thinking they could at least serve as a good distraction, he was surprised to find that the archer was an adept tracker. While he was mildly impressed, it didn’t stop Gabe from nearly strangling them both when they insisted on contacting HQ.

 Before they had started their search Gabe had returned to Jack’s decrepit safe house and  retrieved what seemed to be the last of his visors, as well as extra clips and rockets for the pulse rifle he’d slung across his back. If there was one thing he knew about Jack, it was that he was going to want to shoot his way out once help arrived. Who was Gabe to argue?

 After he regrouped with McCree and Shimada, they quickly made their way to the second base. They crouched on the rooftop of a nearby building, watching as black-clad Talon troops patrolled the perimeter. It was obvious that this base was still functional and larger than the first one. While the first seemed to have been used for mainly the purpose of research, this one looked like it was intended for war. Just beyond the fences lining the perimeter Gabe could see helicopters and at least two armored vehicles. The area should have been teeming with local activity even this late at night. Instead it was eerie and quiet, the only sounds he could hear being the soft sounds of movement from himself and his companions. They were in the middle of what appeared to be a small city, with highrises and skyscrapers jutting up into the night sky. The talon base, in comparison, stood only two stories tall though Gabe thought it likely that there were more levels down below. Every other building within five square miles was empty. He didn’t know how they managed that, nor did he care. But it meant that finding Jack and getting him out of here was going to be more difficult than he thought.

 McCree was thinking along similar lines; three men against an entire facility could go south in a heartbeat if they weren’t careful, even if they were two ex-Blackwatch and a former assassin. His preference would have been to wait for backup. Upon being informed that the captured Soldier: 76 was Jack Morrison, Winston insisted on sending more members to assist them. Genji, Fareeha, Lena, and Lucio were heading to their location as fast as the transport shuttle could take them but it wouldn’t be nearly fast enough. They had already been waiting for a few hours, watching the patrols and looking for patterns, and there was no way Jesse was going to be able to hold Reyes back much longer. He just had to pray that they could pull this off on their own.

  _Speaking of which…_

 “Either of y’all have a plan on how we’re gonna get in there?”

 Hanzo was the first to respond. “Getting past the guards should be simple enough, provided that you remove those tacky spurs from your boots.” McCree swore he could hear Reyes snort softly behind his mask and he wanted to argue, but Hanzo had a fair point. McCree made a show of removing the offending items as Hanzo continued. “Inside, it will be another matter. We do not know the layout of this place and my sonic arrows will be of little use to us in close quarters. I can use the dragons to clear us a path, but…”

 “But you could end up wipin’ Jack out in the process.”

 Hanzo hummed softly in agreement. “For now I will refrain. Once we are sure Morrison is safe I will use the dragons with impunity. As for how we get inside, there appears to be a small side entrance that we can make use of. Their patrols do not appear to pass that way often,” Hanzo indicated the entrance as he spoke. McCree saw that there was a solitary guard posted outside of the door. It wouldn’t take much to take him out and get inside before one of the other guards took notice.

 “If that’s settled can we fucking go now? Or do you want to synchronize your watches too?”

 McCree groaned and rolled his eyes. “Reyes, would you shut the hell up-” He cut himself off and his eyes widened in surprise. Smoke boiled around Reyes’ body and when it cleared McCree could see that his appearance had changed. The heavy black coat and spiked gauntlets were gone and in their place was the very uniform Reyes used to wear as the commander of Blackwatch, complete with oversized hood and body armor. The mask was the last thing to disappear, revealing a scarred face and dark curls that McCree thought he’d never see again. Reyes looked almost exactly the same as he remembered except for the eyes: two black pits with pupils so red they seemed to burn with their own inner fire. In a strange way, Reyes was more intimidating now than he was before. “What are you doing?”

 That smirk was something McCree had seen time and time again, but it had an added flash of sharp teeth, “I want them to see my face and know who killed them.”

 --------------------------------------------

 Pain. His nerves were on fire.

 He could feel the bite of metal against his wrists as he struggled against his restraints. Jack knew through the haze over his mind that his arms must be an ugly mess by this point; he’d twisted and pulled against the restraints until it felt like his joints would give out. He could feel the tacky sensation of blood drying and making his skin stick to the metal.

 He’d been here for...days? He wasn’t sure. All he was certain of was the pain. And the noise. Gabe’s voice, angry and so loud that it left his ears ringing. He couldn’t make sense of it anymore. The words had all blurred together but the emotions behind them were still clear. Anger, pain, hate.

 Jack was grateful when the alarm sounded, drowning out Gabe’s voice.

 --------------------------------------------

  _“Shit!”_

 The sniper spotted them before they made it to the door, firing off a shot that would have put a hole neatly through McCree’s skull were it not for Reyes shoving him out of the way. Hanzo shot the guard before he could call out for help but it wouldn’t be long before the sniper alerted the rest of the base. Hanzo’s next shot arced towards the roof of the compound, splitting and zigzagging as it made contact. An answering shot told him that hadn’t managed to hit his target, but it bought McCree and Reyes enough time to complete their mad dash for the door.

 “Go! I will deal with the sniper!” McCree didn’t have the chance to get a word in before Hanzo was climbing up the wall. One day he’d have to ask how he did that without equipment but now was clearly not the time.

 Grabbing the keycard from the dead guard, McCree unlocked the door and they hauled themselves inside. The door slammed shut as the alarm started and the halls were filled with strobing red light. “Well, so much for the element of surprise! Guess we’re runnin’ and gunnin’ now!”

 They didn’t encounter much resistance as they made their way deeper inside and the sounds of their weapons echoed loudly off of the walls in the enclosed spaces. If the alarm hadn’t given them away, their guns surely would. McCree knew his pistol was loud, meant for power over stealth, but Reaper’s were something else. Reyes duel-wielded shotguns back in the Blackwatch days too, but the pair he used now sounded far more powerful than what he’d had back then. The kick must have been hell on his arms. Each shot caused the pulse rifle on his back to rattle against his body-armor.

 Even as the flow of Talon agents increased they kept a quick pace. Reaper was savage, using  his smoke to disorient his enemies and sneak up on them. Most were taken down by a shot to the face, but there were a few that he grabbed and dragged close. Jesse wasn’t sure what Reyes did to them; they’d kick and scream and then go limp, their skin going ashen and eyes rolling back like Reyes had sucked the life out of them. And maybe that _was_ what he was doing. Reaper would drop them and move onto the next, moving quicker each time.

 They eventually found themselves in a wide open room. It looked to be some sort of mess hall for the Talon troops stationed there and it didn’t take long before they were surrounded. Not one to back down from a fight, McCree had a flashbang in hand and was preparing to throw it when Reyes spoke, gravelly voice low enough for only him to hear. “On the count of three, duck.” His tone left no room for argument. McCree figured it was better than anything he’d planned anyway, so he waited for Reapers cue.

 “One.” The troops around them readied their weapons.

 “Two.” They moved closer, tightening the circle around the two intruders.

  _“Three!”_

 Jesse dropped to the floor as Reaper lifted his arms and began firing.

  _“Die, die, DIE!”_ He saw Reyes’ face light up with manic glee as he pivoted on the ball of his foot, spinning and firing seemingly at random. Jesse watched slack-jawed as each lighting-quick pull of the trigger hit its mark. Not once did Reyes pause to reload, even as he fired more rounds than his guns should logically carry. Dark laughter filled the room amidst a cacophony of gunshots.

 The onslaught was over in a matter of seconds. When the last man went down Reyes’ face slipped back into a neutral expression and he tossed his guns aside like they were nothing. McCree was incredulous at the dismissive treatment of the weapons but they dissolved into black smoke not long after they hit the ground. He wondered what other new tricks his mentor picked up.

 McCree pushed himself back to his feet and let out a low whistle. “Well, that’s one way to clear a room. But c’mon. ‘Die, die, die’? Really?”

 Reyes’ face twisted in disgust. “Like that’s any better than that ‘High Noon’ nonsense that you spout off all the damn time, _pendejo_.”

 “Hey, I’ve got a _theme_ goin’ here!”

 Reyes scoffed and turned away. For just a moment Jesse was reminded of how things were so long ago. He remembered joking around on missions like this before things started to fall apart. He felt a pang of loss in his heart for the things that had been. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.

 Heavy footsteps rang out in the stillness of the room as Reyes stalked towards a solitary survivor struggling to drag himself away. The man tried to scream but was silenced as the former commander’s heavy boot came down on his throat. “Tell me where they took Morrison and maybe I won’t strangle you with your own intestines, _comprende?”_

 The soldier struggled to breathe as Reyes lifted his foot enough for him to speak. “I don’t-I don’t know who you’re talking about! Please!” He let out a strangled yelp as pressure was applied once more, black smoke snaking through the air as Reyes snarled.

 “The prisoner! Soldier: 76! _Where is he?!”_

 McCree honestly thought the man was about to piss himself. The poor guy actually started blubbering as he pointed to one of the doorways opposite from where they entered. “The labs! T-through there and down!” He whimpered as Reyes removed his foot completely. “P-please don’t kill me!”

 Reyes’ expression was bored as he unslung Jack’s pulse rifle from his shoulder. He aimed at the man’s face. “Not part of the deal.” He squeezed the trigger and sent a burst of rounds into the man’s face leaving an unrecognizable mass of flesh. McCree knew the man was destined to die like the others the moment Reyes set his sights on him. He was just unfortunate enough to be the one Reyes selected to push for information.

 “Keep them from following us. I’m getting Jack.”

 Before McCree could stop him, Reyes melted into smoke and shot off down the corridor, leaving the gunslinger alone in a room full of corpses.

 “Reyes, _what the fuck!”_

 --------------------------------------------

 Something was happening. Jack could feel it. Gabe’s voice had cut off not long after the alarms had started and he hadn’t heard from his captor in a while. He thought he could faintly hear someone running past the door but he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t even sure if he was awake or if this was some pain-induced dream.

 He tensed when the doorway to his left hissed open. Whoever had entered walked with slow, heavy steps. Boots of some sort, most likely. They didn’t stop until they were standing next to the table he was bound to. Jack didn’t speak, didn’t move a muscle. This seemed to be a different person than the one he had been dealing with before; the doctor’s steps were usually slow and measured, much like his speech. But he had no way to tell until they made a move. So he waited.

 Leather-clad fingers caressing his cheek made Jack jump despite his attempt at self-control. They trailed over his cheekbone and down his jaw to rest against the side of his throat. “Jack, what have they been doing to you in here?”

  _Gabe!_

 Jack’s voice was hoarse as he tried to respond. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. What are you doing here anyway?” The relief that washed over him was dizzying. Gabe was here. Gabe had tracked him down and come for him. Jack had wanted to believe Gabe would show up to free him from this place after the way their last meeting went. Loneliness ate away at him until such thoughts became painful.

 Yet he was here, freeing Jack from his restraints as gently as he could. The scabs under the restraints tore due to the blood adhering them to the metal but they would heal with time. The same could be said of the bullet wounds in his stomach and shoulder. Gabe arrived before any permanent damage could be done.

 Jack hoped that was the case, at least. He didn’t think the doctor’s attempts to overwhelm him with the sounds of Gabe’s anger had any effect in such a short amount of time. But something still felt off. Something was telling him to be wary of Gabe.

 “How did you find me, anyway?”

 “I had… _help._ McCree showed up, and some archer. They were spouting nonsense about recruiting you for Overwatch,” Gabe grumbled as he pulled one of Jack’s arms over his shoulders and pulled him to his feet. Jack staggered and would have fallen if not for the support. He bristled at the name of his former organization; he’d heard rumors of something happening at the old base in Gibraltar but hadn’t gotten around to confirming anything.

 “...they know who I am?”

 “They didn’t when they showed up. They do now. Had to tell them to get help. Which is ridiculous because anyone with eyes should be able to tell it was you.” Gabe almost sounded like he was _laughing_. “Speaking of which, hold still for a moment.”

 Jack was curious but did as he was told. A moment later, he felt the familiar shape of his mask being pressed against his face. “Where did you find this?” He had to lift his hand to assist Gabe in placing it properly.

 “You dropped it back at the other base. Your gun was just lying there too. Did you even try to put up a fight, old man?” Now Jack was certain that Gabe was laughing at him. It was achingly familiar but felt so wrong at the same time. He remembered the night in the safehouse when their attempts at teasing banter had ended with Jack pinned to the wall by his throat. Neither of them were the same as the two young men that playfully mock each other after missions. They had died long before the Swiss HQ disaster.

 Thinking of their younger selves reminded Jack of another problem, “You...didn’t happen to see my dog tags anywhere did you?”

 “You mean _our_ dog tags? We both know you had mine on that chain too.” Gabe’s voice was oddly flat. If he felt anything about that he was good at hiding it. “I didn’t find them.” Jack’s heart sank. It wasn’t about the tags, exactly, and Gabe had to know that. If the tags were gone the rings were too. He’d lost the last traces of those few precious years that they had been happy together.

 Jack was trying to think of something to say when the mask activated. Pain lanced through his head worse than ever before. The pain caused him to let out a startled shout of pain and sag heavily against Gabe. Washed out tones of red replaced the darkness that his vision had become. Readings flooded across his vision detailing the length and width of the room they were in and the current temperature of the chilly air. While he was happy have the facsimile of sight back, it left Jack nauseous and disoriented. He wondered if the drugs in his system were causing his body to react so violently or if it was something else.

 He turned to look at Gabe and only saw the dark outline of a hooded cowl. The visor was having a difficult time getting any readings from him, but that wasn’t anything new. Gabe seemed substantially more solid than before. Jack though it was probably because Gabe had to keep a solid form as he practically dragged Jack out of the room. He saw no signs of smoke.

 Jack didn’t have long to ponder it before the heavy weight of a gun was pressed into his hand. It was too small to be his pulse rifle, but it wasn’t his typical sidearm either. When he looked at it with the visor he realized that it was similar to those he’d seen Talon soldiers wielding. The gun emitted a high pitched whine that he suspected would be barely audible to the average person. The visor indicated that it was modified to fire electrified rounds.

 “If you see someone, shoot them. We’re getting out of here.”

 “What about McCree and the other guy?”

 “We’ll worry about them later.”

 --------------------------------------------

 McCree was getting antsy. He didn’t like how quiet it was. He’d only seen a handful of Talon soldiers since Reyes had cleared the room but doubted that they’d gotten most of them already. He had the feeling that there were more of them lying in wait somewhere. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, and he rubbed his cybernetic arm as he thought of the last time he’d felt this way.

 Jesse tried to radio Hanzo and hadn’t met much success. He’d gotten in a few short words but it sounded like the sniper was giving him more trouble than he’d originally thought. He could have sworn he heard the words ‘woman’ and ‘blue’ before Hanzo cut the connection but he wasn’t sure. The description sounded a lot like Amelie and he didn’t like it. She was the assassin behind the death of Tekhartha Mondatta and she had appeared with Reaper to steal Doomfist’s gauntlet from the museum. She had been present for two high-profile Talon missions and now she was here. It’d didn’t bode well.

 After contacting Hanzo Jesse tried to reach Reyes but didn’t get a response. He didn’t know how Reaper’s smoke thing worked but it had either fried the comm or Reyes had removed it himself. Neither option was comforting. He was inclined to give Reyes a bit of leeway after learning of his kidnapping and subsequent brainwashing but it didn’t mean he trusted him just yet.

 McCree was preparing to head down the hall after Reyes when the man materialized in front of him. He was alone. Reyes looked about ready to murder the first person he got his hands on as he swung the heavy pulse rifle from his shoulder and threw it to the ground. Jesse found himself wishing he was still alone. “Well, did you find him?”

 Reyes’ lip curled back in a snarl. “If I found him do you think I would have come back alone?”


	8. There's only two ways that these things can go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack found himself struggling with the pace that Gabe had set. He knew that they had to be quick and that Talon soldiers could be on them at any moment, but it didn’t make it any easier. Jack had been restrained for days, and whatever drugs were coursing through his system were making it hard to focus. His limbs felt like lead.
> 
>  
> 
> **NSFW content near the end of this chapter.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, guys! We've reached the end, at least for now. All of you have been so amazing, leaving comments and kudos and art and all sorts of encouragement! This has come so far from that little one-shot that started it all and I never would have made it without you!
> 
> Again, special thanks to shrupinterrupts/[shrupdedup](http://shrupdedup.tumblr.com) for being my beta this chapter, and to [jara257](http://jara257.tumblr.com) on Tumblr for inspiring me to get my ass into gear and finish this!

The fight was taking longer than Hanzo had anticipated. He had hoped to end it quickly and rejoin Jesse and Reaper, not fond of the idea of leaving Jesse alone with the mercenary. He didn’t care what history they shared, Reaper was a dangerous man known for killing Overwatch operatives. They may have recently discovered more about his motives, but he was still a potential threat.

 But the woman he was fighting was no ordinary foe. She was nimble, lining up her shots with an ease that spoke of years training. She’d dodged more than one of his shots and was even capable of evading his scatter arrows. At the very least he was able to keep her from setting up a perch. He liked to think that he was serving as a proper distraction for her, but wondered if she was the one meant to distract him. The way she toyed with him was like a spider attempting to trap its prey. One misstep could prove fatal.

 It nearly did.

 She was on the opposite end of the roof, preparing to evade him yet again with the use of her grappling hook. Hanzo was so focused on his next shot that he misjudged his footing, tripping over a maintenance hatch door and sprawling gracelessly onto his back. He saw the instant she knew she had him; she lowered her hook and raised her rifle. Her lips curved into a smile as she sighted him through her scope. Thoughts of Jesse and his brother came to mind as he waited for the shot.

 It didn’t come.

 His eyes widened incredulously as she pitched forward face-first. Not one to waste a chance, he jumped to his feet and approached her with caution. He kicked away her weapon and knelt, pressing his fingers to her throat when he didn’t see any sign of consciousness. Her pulse was strong, if alarmingly slow, and her skin was cold. A large dart was embedded in her throat, the last vestiges of an unknown liquid contained within.

 Alarmed, he looked up in time to see a flutter of blue and gray. Hanzo’s gaze snapped to a figure perched on a nearby rooftop. They were wearing a mask with a blue triangle glowing softly in the center. As he watched, they lifted one hand to where their lips would be as if telling him to be quiet.

 ----------------------------------

 Jesse’s breath came in loud pants as he fought to keep up with Reyes. Whatever had been done to the ex-Blackwatch commander obviously did wonders for his stamina. McCree didn’t think he’d once seen the man out of breath since they’d entered the base. The gunslinger, however, was struggling. He was thankfully given an excuse to slow to a walk when his earpiece crackled to life. Hanzo’s smooth voice came over the line, and McCree was relieved he’d managed to outgun the sniper. Or at least evade her.

 “Jesse, are you alright?”

 McCree grinned, sending an exaggerated wink in Reyes’ direction. “Better now that I’ve heard your voice, darlin’.” Reyes groaned in disgust and rolled his eyes. He looked like he was itching to keep running and kept squeezing the strap holding Jack’s pulse rifle to his shoulders. He stared off down the hall as if he could make Jack appear if he glared hard enough. McCree knew he had to make this quick if he didn’t want Reyes taking off without him again.

 “You take out that sniper already?”

 “She proved to be...formidable.” It sounded as if Hanzo forced the last word out through clenched teeth. “We were at a stalemate, but then a third party intervened.”

 That bit of news made McCree’s brows draw up in surprise. “What kinda third party are we talkin’ here? They gonna be an issue?”

 “I do not believe so. They sedated the sniper with some sort of dart. I only caught a glimpse of them, but they did not seem hostile towards us.”

 A dart? That sounded like-

 No. Couldn’t be.

 “So you gonna join us now or what? Sure could use your little sonic arrow trick to find our way around down here. Jack ain’t in his cell and I’ve got a feelin’ we’re losin’ ground fast.”

 Gabriel was seething as he half-listened to McCree. They were wasting time here. They could already be too late. Gabe had seen fresh blood on the metal table where Jack had been restrained. It could mean that that he was still nearby, but it did little to soothe Gabe’s nerves.

 Gabriel was preparing to rush ahead, McCree be damned, when the gunslinger’s voice rose in surprise.

 “You see ‘em? Where?” Reyes turned to face him, ready to demand answers when McCree lifted his hand and signaled for him to wait. The cowboy had his other hand pressed to his ear, listening intently to whatever the archer had to say. McCree’s head snapped up and he turned to face the way they had come.

 “This way!” He barked out the words and took off. Reyes didn’t hesitate to follow.

 “How the hell did he find him?” Reyes wasn’t complaining- far from it- but it burned him a little that this _stranger_ was able to find Jack so quickly after he and McCree had been the ones running around.

 McCree laughed, already sounding winded. “Monitor room! Don’t know why we didn’t think of that! Says he saw someone taking Jack down this way!” The gunslinger led him back towards the mess hall, then took a sharp turn down a hallway to their right. Shimada must have been guiding him via the comm, watching their progress from the monitor room and ensuring they took the quickest path to their target.

 “The bastard was doubling back on us, but we’ll catch up with him in no time!”

 “Jesse! Wait!”

 Hanzo’s voice crackled from McCree’s earpiece as they rounded the corner, but it was already too late.

 Two shots rang out.

 The first caught McCree in the shoulder. He let out a strangled yell as his muscles seized and nerves screamed. He was in agony as electricity surged through his body from the point of contact.

 The second caught Gabe in the gut. He had a brief moment to register the pain before the current tore him apart.

 ----------------------------------

 Jack found himself struggling with the pace that Gabe had set. He knew that they had to be quick and that Talon soldiers could be on them at any moment, but it didn’t make it any easier. Jack had been restrained for days, and whatever drugs were coursing through his system were making it hard to focus. His limbs felt like lead.

 “I sure hope you know where we’re going.”

 Gabe huffed, adjusting his grip on Jack. The two of them had always been the same height, or at least Jack thought so. But now it seemed like Gabe was at least a few inches taller. And were his shoulders always so narrow?

 “I got in here, didn’t I? Trust me. Not much farther.” Gabe’s tone was distracted, like he was paying attention to something that Jack couldn’t see or hear. It unnerved him because they hadn’t come across any resistance yet. The alarm was still blaring overhead. Where was everyone?

  _Wrong. This feels all wrong._

 Jack stopped and dug in his heels, grunting when Gabe tried to tug him forward. Realizing that Jack wasn’t going to move on his own, Gabe turned to face him. Jack couldn’t read his expression due to the way Gabe’s visage was distorted by the visor. He imagined that he looked annoyed.

 “Why are we stopping?”

 “I think we should find McCree first.”

 “I told you, we’ll worry about him later.”

 The reaction wasn’t what he was expecting. Jack thought Gabe would growl or snap at him to keep moving. What he got was a drawn out sigh as Gabe tightened his grip to a near painful degree. He was startled when Gabe yanked him forward, dragging him along. His side ached where Gabe’s fingers pressed into his flesh and he shifted closer in an effort to relieve the pressure. He’d been manhandled by Gabe in the past, but not like this. It was as if Gabe didn’t care if he hurt him.

 “Gabe! Dammit, ease up-”

 “They’re coming!”

 Jack barely registered the sound of footsteps before two people charged into view from a corridor on their left. As the visor lit up in warning Jack acted on instinct, lifting his weapon and firing twice. One shot for each target.

 The first man fell with a pained shout, his hat landing a few feet away. He didn’t get back up but the visor indicated that he wasn’t dead.

 The second let out an ear-splitting shriek and _exploded_ into a writhing mass of black smoke. Jack stared, dumbfounded, as the smoke spread across his vision like ink spread through water. It was familiar. Too familiar.

 Jack felt ice settle into his gut as he recognized the dark cloud from his past fights with Reaper. His ears were still ringing when he turned away from the roiling black mass and stared at the man next to him. The man had appeared entirely smokeless since pulling Jack from his dark room.

 Too tall. Shoulders too narrow. No smoke.

 No reaction to the loss of the tags and rings. Because they would have meant nothing to the person standing next to him.

 Jack shoved himself away from the stranger, legs staggering as they were forced to take his full weight for the first time in days. He pointed his gun directly at their face.

 “Who the fuck are you?!”

 “I had hoped to get you out of here with minimal fuss. What a pity.” The figure sighed softly in annoyance, idly toying with a small device in their hand that Jack hadn’t notice before. There was a faint click as they activated it.

 Jack screamed and dropped to his knees as pain lanced through his skull, the gun falling from lax fingers. He clawed at the visor, the source of the pain, and tried in vain to pry it off. Something about the housing of the mask was keeping it firmly trapped in place and he couldn’t think clearly enough to get it free. His skin felt like it was burning where the visor pressed against his temples and his fingers stung when they came in contact with the smooth glass. Jack’s vision flickered between total darkness and distorted red as the stranger approached him.

 The doctor sneered as he watched Jack shudder in agony. He tugged down his hood and removed the voice modulator he was wearing underneath, its purposed completed. He pressed his foot against Jack’s face, sending the injured man sprawling backwards with a light shove.

 “Such a sad sight you are, Mr. 76. Weak, like a child. And so easily deceived.” He took in the prone body of McCree and the twisting black mass that had been Reaper and laughed lightly. “Although I must say you’ve done quite a good job at hurting your friends. But that’s nothing new for you, is it?”  

 The doctor bent forward to pick up the gun, leisurely turning it back and forth in his hands. Deciding that Jack was harmless for now, he turned his attention back to Reaper.

 “Tell me, Mr. Reyes, how does it feel to be hurt by Jack once more?”

 The doctor thought that Gabe was powerless in this current state. He was unprepared when the smoke surged forward and solidified, slamming him against the wall and knocking the gun from his hand. The face he found himself staring into was no longer the familiar face of Gabriel Reyes. Instead he was met with blazing red eyes and too many teeth set into a face that was equal parts bleached bone and writhing darkness. Smoke blocked everything else until the only thing he could see was that face.

 Claws tore into the soft flesh of his throat as he was lifted until his feet left the floor. The doctor frantically tried to grab onto Reaper’s arm in an attempt to pry himself free, but his fingers only met empty air. The only solid parts of the monster in front of him were the hand around his throat and that terrible face.

 “B-but- How?! You were incapacitated!”

 Harsh laughter was the response. It echoed around and _through_ him as those sharp claws dug deeper. He opened his mouth in a pained gasp and choked as dark tendrils made their way down his throat. Smoke poured into his mouth and ravaged his insides and he tried to scream as he desperately fought to break free.

 The last thing he heard before he was brutally torn apart was Reaper’s voice, disturbingly soft like a gentle caress.

 “You can’t escape Death, _cabron_.”

 ----------------------------------

 Jesse watched in fascinated horror as Reaper shifted back into the familiar guise of Gabriel Reyes. There was nothing left of the doctor but a mess of blood and gore, but Reyes’ old Blackwatch uniform was pristine. In contrast to the monstrous appearance from just moments prior, Reyes looked more human than he had before they’d set off on this mission.

 Reyes crushed a small device under his heel. Jack immediately went lax, chest heaving as he fought to catch his breath in the confines of his mask. Reyes knelt next to him and gently pried it loose, tossing it aside to be forgotten.

 McCree felt like he’d been punched in the gut when he saw the mess that Jack’s face had become. He hadn’t expected the same good looks as before; you didn’t just walk away from an explosion like that without a few scars. But most of his face from the nose down was a mess of burns and ruined tissue. Jack’s eyes only opened briefly, and they were dull in a way that Jesse registered as blind. He wondered if the visor helped in some way, and if that was why Reyes had been so insistent on retrieving it.

 He was so lost in thought that he jumped when a hand landed on his uninjured shoulder. Realizing it was Hanzo, he blew out a noisy breath with a laugh that bordered on hysteria.

 “About time you got here. Things got a bit dicey there for a second.”

 “The situation may not have become ‘dicey’ if you had been more careful,” Hanzo hummed softly as he pressed a wadded bundle of cloth against McCree’s shoulder. The cowboy realized that it was the silk scarf that he normally used to tie back his hair and felt the familiar warm burn of affection. The damn thing would be ruined after this.

 “You know me, darlin’. Careful ain’t exactly my thing.”

 He yelped as Hanzo tied the scarf around the wound and pulled it tight.

 “Do not say that as if it is a point of pride! Show some care for yourself!”

 McCree laughed weakly and offered a half-assed salute with his good hand. As Hanzo helped him to his feet Jesse saw Reyes lift an unconscious Jack into his arms. The tenderness with which Reyes treated Jack was so at odds with the violence he’d exhibited before that Jesse had a hard time reconciling the two.

 Hanzo gave him a questioning look and Jesse realized he must look like he’d seen a ghost. That description probably wasn’t far off. “I’ll tell you later. Let’s just get the hell out of here.”

 Hanzo, bless him, took him at his word. “There is an exit not far from here. My brother has informed me that they are close. A matter of minutes. They have yet to be informed of our....companion.”

 Right. McCree had glossed over Reaper’s presence when he called for backup.

 “We’ll deal with that when they get here. Let’s just get movin’.”

 ----------------------------------

 It all happened quickly after that.

 Upon reaching the exit, they faced the bulk of the remaining Talon soldiers. Hanzo was prepared. He summoned the dragons in a flurry of blue light and sent them rampaging through the heart of their formation, felling dozens and scattering the rest. He was prepared to fight his way through the rest when a barrage of rockets rained from above.

 Not a single Talon soldier was left standing when the smoke cleared.

 Gabe watched as Fareeha touched down, the Overwatch transport not far behind her. Lena and Genji exited the ship, along with an unfamiliar man wearing skates made of hard light. The stranger was the only newcomer that wasn’t staring at him.

 He had a lot of explaining to do.

 ----------------------------------

 Jack woke slowly. He lay for a moment and tried to orient himself. The bed he lay on was softer than anything in recent memory. His hands and arms weren’t bound.

 He wasn’t in pain.

 It was so odd that for a moment he thought that he’d slipped into some sort of fevered dream. He heard the beep of a heart monitor nearby as it sped up in response to his panic and he struggled to remember how he got here.

 Someone had pulled him out of that room. Gabe, but not really. Someone that mimicked his voice, tried to lure Jack into a false sense of security. Then there was the gun, shots fired, a scream that no human throat should be capable of making. Unbearable pain.

 And then he was here. Was he still in their hands? Was he free?

 A warm hand covered his own, squeezing softly. “It’s alright, _cariño_. You’re safe now.”

 He wanted to feel comforted by that voice, but unease sat heavily in his gut. The last time he’d trusted that voice it hadn’t ended well.

 “How can I be so sure? Thought that before.”

 There was a soft growl and the feel of fingers brushing over his cheek. Lips pressed against Jack’s brow in a gentle kiss before his hand was lifted and pressed against Gabe’s face. It was a strange feeling of _déjà vu_ as he traced his fingers over familiar cheekbones and a prominent nose. His fingers traced over skin that was warm and smooth then cool and dry and back again. His thumb brushed over lips that were smiling softly in a way that he’d missed for so long.

 “Gabe,” he breathed softly, “It’s really you this time, isn’t it?”

 “It is.”

 Jack could feel sleep pulling at him again, but a sudden flash of fear had him holding on. “Please, don’t leave.”

 “Go to sleep, Jack. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

 ----------------------------------

 The next few days went by slowly. There always seemed to be someone in Jack’s room when he woke up. Each of the older Overwatch members came by, glad to discover he was still alive. Though they also had their own unique ways of reprimanding him for hiding all of these years. Fareeha had been the most furious, but it was Reinhardt’s response that hurt the worst. Angela told him quietly that she’d known, or at least suspected. She’d always known about Gabe.

 It was McCree he talked to the most. From talking to Jesse, he learned about what had happened after he’d fired the gun. Learning that he’d shot McCree had been rough but the gunslinger seemed to take it all with good humor. The only time his cheery tone faltered was describing how Gabe had dispatched the doctor. Jesse sounded like he was having trouble coming to terms with it.

 Jesse also told him that Gabe was only allowed on base as long as he remained unarmed. It had taken a heated argument from McCree and, strangely, Hanzo for Gabe not to be thrown in a cell as soon as they’d landed. Winston still hadn’t forgiven him for his attempts to steal the Overwatch member roster, but his anger had been cooled when McCree had told him about the videos they’d found.

 The whole team knew. After that, any opposition to Gabriel’s presence had dwindled. That didn’t mean that the others weren’t wary of his presence. Gabe had been oddly compliant, putting up minimal fuss at the restrictions and outright refusing to talk about what had happened. Nobody knew where he went when he wasn’t at Jack’s side. It made many of them nervous.

 A week later and Jack was released from medical. Angela gave him strict orders to continue taking it easy but he was free to do so in his own quarters. It was Gabe that guided him there.

 He wasn’t sure how he felt when he realized they were headed for his old Strike-Commander’s quarters.

 ----------------------------------

 Jack traced his fingers lightly over the planes of Gabe’s chest. They lay in his bed, facing each other and stripped bare. Gabe’s arms were wrapped loosely around him. Their breath mingled as their foreheads pressed together lightly. Their legs were tangled together under the thin sheets.

 Gabe’s body was as familiar as his face; the same lines and curves interspersed with strange cold patches. Jack had spent hours tracing over familiar scars, scars he’d been intimately familiar with until the day Gabe had broken things off between them. There were newer ones too, signs that Gabe had become reckless in the last few years between their breakup and the fall of the original Overwatch. Jack was fairly certain that he hadn’t received any new ones since then. He didn’t think Gabe’s current state would allow for that.

 Gabe’s body reacted the same, too. The sounds he made as Jack slowly worked him open with his fingers reminded him of the nights they used to spend just exploring each other’s bodies. Gabe’s mouth was hot against his throat as Jack pressed his fingers deeper and thumbed his swollen clit. Jack’s breath stuttered in his chest as Gabe wrapped a hand around his cock and stroked, blunt nails ghosting over the sensitive skin.

 Jack was pushed gently onto his back, and then Gabe was sinking down onto him slowly. He felt Gabe’s groan as much as he heard it and those powerful thighs pressed tightly against him on either side. It started out with the gentle roll of hips and soft kisses but they quickly lost any pretense of control. Jack came with a harsh gasp and Gabe’s teeth in his shoulder while his own fingers grasped Gabe’s thighs hard enough to bruise.

 Afterwards they lay tangled together. Gabe’s head was resting on his chest and Jack had the sneaking suspicion that Gabe was listening to his heartbeat. As Jack threaded his fingers through Gabe’s hair he wondered if he’d hear a matching beat in Gabe’s chest. They fell asleep that night to the tune of soft touches and quiet whispers.

 Gabe was glad that Jack couldn’t see the pained expression on his face.

 ----------------------------------

 The next morning was the first Jack was cleared for training. He was planning to put his time to good use and get back into a routine. Nearly two weeks of inactivity had him itching to don his gear and get out to the training grounds. He also wanted to see what the newer members were capable of.

 Gabe had been acting strange all morning. Jack had originally chalked it up to feeling awkward about how quickly they’d fallen into bed together after everything that had happened, but now he wasn’t so sure. He’d barely spoken to Jack, responding with one-word answers or short, clipped sentences. He didn’t sound angry, but something was clearly bothering him.

 Jack had a feeling that he knew what this was about. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

 He heard the heavy thud of Gabe’s boots heading for the door and reached out, latching onto Gabe’s wrist. Hot anger bubbled in his chest as Gabe stopped.

 “Gabe, just _wait_ , dammit!”

 Gabe refused to turn around. The soldier’s grip was like iron and would have been painful to a normal person, but Gabe didn’t say a word.

 “Are you really just going to up and leave after everything? Like your idiotic move to go after Talon by yourself?” Jack’s fingers tightened when Gabe didn’t respond and his next words were cold.

 “Or maybe you just wanna be sent to an early grave again? You’re more reckless than I remember, Reyes.”

 Jack was attempting to bait him, to get some sort of reaction from him other than silence. But Gabe didn’t react. Jack wanted him to be angry, to yell, to do _anything_ other than just stand there. He wished he could see Gabe’s face, if only to see if his words were having any effect at all.

 Jack clenched his teeth. “You’re a coward, you know that? Turning tail because you’re afraid to face the consequences of the shit you’ve done. But you…” His voice wavered as angry tears burned at the corners of his eyes. “You don’t have to leave, you dense jackass.”  

 Gabe kept his eyes stubbornly rooted to the floor.

 “Fucking hell, say something you piece of-”

 The wrist in Jack’s grip slipped through his fingers as Gabe shifted, leaving Jack clutching at shadows.

  _“I’m sorry.”_

 And then Jack was alone.

 He staggered forward, reaching out in the hope that Gabe was still standing there. Tears streamed freely down his face as he realized that Gabe had left him again with no guarantee that he would return. He nearly slipped as his foot came down on something that Gabe must have dropped.

 Reaching down, he felt the familiar texture of a ball chain beneath his fingers. As he snatched it up he heard the soft sound of dog tags clicking together and felt dizzy. Gabe found them. He’d been holding onto them this entire time. Jack laughed wetly as he traced his fingers over the familiar strips of metal, pausing when he realized something was missing.

 One of the rings was gone.

 ----------------------------------

 When Gabe rematerialized outside the gates of the base he was once again clothed in the garments of the Reaper. McCree let out a low whistle, the scent of cigarillo smoke hanging heavy in the air.

 “That getup again? Though you were givin’ that up.”

 Reaper growled, the sound distorted by the mask. “I don’t want to hear that from some wanna-be cowboy. Another word about it and I’m leaving you behind.”

 McCree chuckled softly. “Yeah, yeah. I hear you.” He eyed the base with an expression of mixed longing and regret. “We’d best get out of here before someone thinks to come lookin’.”

 “You don’t have to come with me, _idiota._ ”

 Jesse shook his head, turning away. “Yeah. Yeah I do. You ain’t the only one that has things they have to make up for.” He turned to Gabe with a grin, “Besides, someone’s gotta watch your back, right?”

 Gabe made a disgusted noise and started moving. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was glad for the company. Even if it wasn’t the company he wanted.

 The silver band was a familiar weight on his finger. It served to remind him that he had something else to fight for now other than hate. He just hoped Jack remembered their old promise.

  _“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”_

 “What nonsense are you spouting now, McCree?”

 “Nothin’. Just something from a book I read once.”

 ----------------------------------

_It was a quiet day. As Jack and Gabe sat atop the grassy hill together they could almost pretend that everything was fine. They just had to ignore the burning omnium in the distance._

_Still, it was peaceful. A rare moment when the two of them could relax together, away from prying eyes or the risk of death by omnic. Their armor lay scattered around them as they looked up at the clear blue sky. Gabe’s hand rested over Jack’s, the warm metal of Jack’s gold ring pressing into his palm. The sight of Jack in that moment, eyes closed and face turned up towards the sun, was one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen._

_“Say, Gabe. You ever thought about what you’ll do after all this?”_

_Gabe shoved him lightly in the shoulder and Jack laughed._

_“Don’t you mean us ? You planning to ditch me somewhere, cariño ?”_

_The smile Jack wore didn’t quite reach his eyes. “No. But I can’t help thinking...I mean, there’s no guarantee that we’ll still be stationed together when all of this is over, right? Assuming we’re not dead, that is. They could just up and ship us off anywhere. It’s amazing that we’ve even ended up fighting side-by-side after we were done with the SEP.”_

_That was true, though Jack ending up with Overwatch was less of a miracle and more Gabe pulling in some favors. But it had worked out in the end._

_“We’ll figure something out.”_

_“You say that, but how can you know?”_

_Instead of answering right away, Gabe pulled Jack into a kiss. They lingered that way for some time,taking a moment to enjoy the chance to be so close. When they finally broke apart, Jack’s eyes were shining with the same fondness that always made Gabe’s heart skip._

_“No matter what happens, I’ll always find my way back to you.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to shout at me about this fic or give me more writing ideas at visor76.tumblr.com


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